


The Ones That Got Away

by HerHighnessThePrincess



Category: Lego Ninjago
Genre: Blood, Fake Major Character Death, For those of you worried this fic does not contain any romance in it whatsoever, Gen, Grieving, Kai is in a dream so he's not technically in this fic, Nightmare, also general warnings for s8, general warning for harumi because god what a bitch
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-20
Updated: 2020-06-20
Packaged: 2021-03-04 06:02:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,071
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24828772
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HerHighnessThePrincess/pseuds/HerHighnessThePrincess
Summary: After the Destiny's Bounty was destroyed, Lloyd can't quite believe what happened at first. It took seeing the evidence with his own eyes to accept it. Season 8 Aftermath.
Relationships: Lloyd Garmadon & Harumi, Lloyd Garmadon & Kai, Lloyd Garmadon & Misako, Lloyd Garmadon & Nya
Comments: 4
Kudos: 43





	The Ones That Got Away

**Author's Note:**

> Season eight completely and utterly ripped my heart out, dashed it on the stones, and squashed it, and I completely and utterly love it for that. I just had to write something for it.
> 
> This is also loosely inspired by lloydskywalkers amazing fanfic, Those Left Behind (on fanfiction.net) that made me sob like a baby at 3 am. Please go and check it out, it’s amazing.
> 
> So here’s Lloyd and others going through some big ouchy times. Emotionally and physically.
> 
> Trigger warnings: Fake major character death, Harumi, blood (mild), grieving, nightmare.

Lloyd’s used to pain. He’s had to experience it most of his life, from Darkley’s, to the Serpentine, to being a ninja, to… _this_. He’s well used to the aches of bruises, the awful stinging that comes with a broken bone, and having to stay in bed for days at a time, healing from whatever wounds he had gotten from a recent battle. 

He’s gotten to know emotional pain as well. Losing his father, having his own brother turn on him, having his mind and body almost destroyed by Morro… the list goes on and on. 

But none of that could hurt more than this.

Every part of his body ached from the fight with his father. Almost miraculously, nothing had been broken, but every part of him under his clothes was bruised an ugly purple. Even on his face, there were clear marks from Garmadon slapping him around on his cheek and right eye. The way Harumi is holding him up is causing his gi to dig into his neck, making breathing far more labored than usual. He’s never been this broken physically before.

But that was nothing compared to what he was seeing in front of him.

The Colossi had the Destiny’s Bounty in its grasp with his brothers on board. He could just about see them from this distance, four blobs of black, blue, white, and red. He could hear them yelling, Kai’s voice being the clearest, something about needing to get off the ship (he would do anything to get them off the ship, to keep them safe, he had been trying to keep them _safe_ -) but there was no way to get off the ship. Lloyd couldn’t breathe, not because of the vice-like grip Harumi has on his neck. It’s because he knew what was about to happen.

It’s happened before. It’s Misako leaving him at Darkley’s. It’s Garmadon being trapped in the Underworld and then in the Cursed Realm, dead and gone and out of his life (well, not out of his life now). 

He hadn’t thought it could happen to them though. The ninja had always been there for him. They had all seemed so invincible, always pulling through in the worst of times, always getting a win even when everything seemed hopeless. Everytime something had happened to them they had always come back to him so quickly.

There was no coming back from this.

He hoped beyond belief that was about to happen. That they would find some way off the ship and get back to him, that they wouldn’t be _crushed_ -

It’s not even their own fault. They had just been trying their hardest to save him from his own stupidity, his own rash choices, his impulsive decision that almost _killed him_.

But now it’s going to kill them instead. It’s all so horrifically unfair that Lloyd wants to scream. He would give _anything_ to trade places with them. To be stuck on that ship instead, to be the one in danger. It’s selfish, he knows. He could only imagine how much it would devastate them if he was the one trapped on the ship. He knows how they would react to losing a family member, how badly torn apart they had been. He knows Ninjago can’t afford that, they can’t afford to lose their only remaining protectors, not now.

Ninjago was about to lose its only protectors regardless. Over the ringing in his ears, and the vague words he can’t quite comprehend from Harumi, he could hear the sounds of the ship. Wood creaking, metal breaking, and worst of all, the desperate yells and screams from his family. The Colossi was really beginning to break the ship now, its two hands pressing together with more force.

Then it stalled. He could tell the Colossi was pushing as hard as it could, but the Bounty appeared to be holding. For a moment, hope flared in his chest. Maybe the Bounty was too strong for it to break, maybe it wouldn’t be crushed, maybe his friends, his _family_ , won’t-

The Colossi twisted something, the Bounty broke in on itself, and the screams cut off so abruptly and jarringly that it almost scared Lloyd. Harumi laughed and started bragging again, probably attempting to twist the knife in further. He couldn’t hear her over the silence in his ears, the awful silence that he wants to be replaced so badly with literally anything else, so he doesn’t have to think about what just happened, so he doesn’t have to grieve. 

Lloyd screamed. It was an awful, ragged, _heartbroken_ noise which pierced the silence in his head like a sword cutting through a fog. Harumi laughed again, then said, “This is what I wanted. To see your father’s return, and for you to lose _everything_.”

She dropped him, and Lloyd fell onto the sky tram. He couldn’t feel the pain over the awful ache which was beginning to split his chest in two, over the awful pain which he knew was just going to get worse.

He’s lost family before. Never this many. Never all of his brothers. Never _Kai_.

“How does it feel to see the _end_?” Harumi mocked, her voice an almost sweet purr in his ear despite the distortion the mask gives it.

He couldn’t even face her. Couldn’t face the woman that broke his family apart, who twisted his father into a hollow shell of what he had been. He was crying, he realized, tears slipping down his face and accumulating on the metal below him. He knew what she wanted to hear. She wanted justification for what she had done, she wanted him to fall down to her level.

He won’t. Not because he didn’t want to. He wanted, more than anything, to grab his sword and slice her head off.

He wouldn’t give her the _satisfaction_.

“No,” he said, pleased when Harumi appeared surprised. “I won’t let it do to me what it did to you. This isn’t the end, Harumi.”

It won’t be, he’ll make sure of that. He’ll make sure to get back at her, no matter what it takes. He’ll make sure to avenge them-

Wait. He doesn’t _know_. Not for sure. There’s every possibility that they are dead, of course, but there’s a chance. They could have jumped off the ship, they could have gotten away. They could be _alive_.

If they are alive, he has to get down to them. He can’t stay up here on the sky tram with Harumi. But he can’t let her know what he’s doing.

“This is just the beginning,” he said, reveling in the way Harumi took a step back. “Without my power, without my friends, I’m gonna fight you. I’m gonna fight on. Because a ninja never _quits_.”

“Well then,” Harumi said, drawing out her serrated knife. “Goodbye, Lloyd.”

“Before I go, just answer me this,” he said. “You said the greatest villain was the one who got away.”

Harumi tilted her head in confusion, and Lloyd smirked. “Then what am I?”

Harumi took a wild swing at him with the blade, but Lloyd ducked, jumping off the sky tram and activating his parachute a moment later. He landed on the ground, immediately detaching himself from the parachute. He ran towards the wreck as fast as he could, heart pounding wildly and breath dry in his throat.

They had to be okay. _They had to be okay. THEY HAD TO BE OKAY-_

Lloyd skidded to a stop when he saw the Colossi still standing above the remains of the Bounty, immobile. He watched it in trepidation as it just stood there, staring down at its work. Then it raised its foot and slowly brought it down.

No. _No. NonononononONONONONONONO **NONONONO-**_

The foot crashed into the Bounty, and Lloyd winced, before immediately trying to comfort himself. _The ninja are smart. If they’re still alive-which they are-they’d have gotten off the ship. They’re almost definitely just hiding. They’re fine_.

To Lloyd’s immediate relief, the Colossi began to turn and walk the other way, undoubtedly to ruin even more buildings and lives. Lloyd couldn’t quite bring himself to care. He can’t stop the thing by himself, and if Harumi wanted to create dozens of people just like her, well, that’s her prerogative.

He allowed himself to smile at the thought. Harumi dying at the hand of a little boy or girl who’s life she ruined. It would be remarkably cathartic, for her to meet her end because of her own hypocrisy.

When the Colossi was completely out of view, and Lloyd could no longer feel its footsteps through the ground, he dared to run to the edge of the wreck, halting before his foot hit the first piece of debris. Gingerly, he stepped over the scattered wood and metal, working his way closer to the actual mass of wood which used to be his home. 

He stopped when he reached the first block of wood which he would actually have to climb over, something which almost definitely had been part of the deck.

The deck. Which his friends, his older brothers had been standing on.

Lloyd swallowed. They’re _fine_. They have to be. They wouldn’t leave him like this, not willingly.

Lloyd ignored the little part of his brain which told him that if they were dead, they wouldn’t have had a choice.

“Kai?” he whispered. “Jay? Zane? Cole?”

There was no response. Lloyd’s heart twisted in his chest for a split second before he said their names, louder this time.

Still no response. For a split Lloyd allowed himself to doubt, but then he reasoned with himself again. _Huge chunks of the ship survived. They weren’t even below deck, they didn’t have the walls collapsing in on them. The shock of everything must have just knocked them unconscious._

Lloyd clambered over the massive piece of wood, letting himself drop down onto what used to be the Bounty. And then he began to search. He turned over every piece of wood he could find that would be big enough to hide an unconscious person, he dug his way into the wood and metal in a desperate attempt to find them.

At first he was hopeful. He couldn’t see any blood, or any spilled oil or wires that would have come from them. With every piece of wood he tossed aside he became more and more sure that the next one would reveal his family.

But time passed, and as Lloyd dug and dug and dug, the desperation set in. Lloyd was now frantic, tossing aside every single piece of wood roughly without care for where it might land or even his own safety. His hands were riddled with splinters, palms cracked and bleeding, but he kept on going. He had to find them. If they were still here, and the Colossi came back to finish the job, they would be helpless. He had to get them out.

He wasn’t sure when he gave up, when he became too exhausted to continue on. All he knew was that he had kneeled down to get a piece of wood, tossed it aside, and then had simply not gotten back up again. He lay there, panting, as the sun began to rise, and shed more light on the Bounty.

There’s a red smear under him. Lloyd tried to tell himself that it was small, far too small to be the remnants of one of his brothers. 

It wasn’t working. Lloyd could feel the awful numbness returning to him, tears beginning to gather in his eyes. He let out an awful, half-choked sob. 

He was still trying to convince himself. _The blood doesn’t mean anything-it’s not big enough-it could have been there for days, you know how many fights take place on the ship-one of them could have tripped and fallen-there aren’t any bodies-_

He glanced up through teary eyes-only for them to focus on something. There’s red fabric, trapped underneath a large piece of wood that he hadn’t overturned yet. Lloyd ran over, placed his hands under the wood, and started to pull. 

_Kai might still be alive,_ he thought desperately. _Kai could just be out of it. If Kai’s still alive, then the others might be too, and even if they aren’t, I still have one brother. If Kai’s here, he can take over, he can help me-he can stay with me-he can be **alive** -_

With what felt like almost the last of his strength, Lloyd managed to push the board up over his head and send it crashing down on the other side. Lloyd stared at what was there in numb disbelief, before reaching down to grab it.

It was a red hood. _Kai’s_ red hood. He must have taken it off at some point, leaving it separated from the rest of him.

There’s blood on the side of it.

Lloyd held it with shaking hands. If-If Kai’s hood was here, and the rest of him wasn’t then he had to be on a different part of the ship. He had to be alive, he couldn’t be-he couldn’t possibly be-he was alive, he just had to find him-

But he knew better now. If they were still alive, he would have found them, or they would have come to him. They wouldn’t have let him search for the entire night. There was only one explanation that made any sense.

They were dead.

They were _dead_ and it was all Lloyd’s _fault_.

He keeled over, pressed his forehead into the red hood, and _screamed_.

\---

He wasn’t entirely sure when he stopped crying, and was just left with the awful ache on both his body and his heart. He felt completely and utterly numb to any sensation except for a dull pain, the whole world having faded around him. The only thing he could focus on was the red hood in his hands, limp and bedraggled with dirt smeared all over it. He clung onto it tightly, pressing it against his chest.

This is the only bit of his older brother that he has left. Just a ragged hood. Not even a sword, not any part of him that actually mattered. All of the photos of them must have been destroyed on the Bounty, so unless Nya has any-

Oh FSM, _Nya_. She doesn’t know. She can’t know. She can’t know how badly he failed-

Lloyd choked on a whine, crumpling to the floor. He’s going to have to tell her what happened. What happened to her friends, her boyfriend, her own _brother_ -

The tears began to fall down his face again, and he rubbed them away with the mask as best he could. No matter what happens, he has to tell her what happened, and he has to tell her that it happened because he failed to get onto the ship. He owes her that much. And he has to give her the red hood. Kai was her brother, she should decide what to do with the last piece of him.

The sound of creaking wood caused Lloyd to jolt hard, whip around and hold up an arm, ready to fire off a ball of energy-only to remember he couldn’t do that anymore.

He didn’t need to anyways.

Misako was standing there, staring at him. She was looking intently at his face, before she reached down to cup his cheeks.

“Lloyd,” she said softly. “We have to go.”

He shook his head mutely, more tears falling. She grabbed his hand and tugged gently, attempting to force him to get up. When that didn’t work she let go, kneeling down beside him.

“Lloyd,” she began. “I know how hard this must be for you-”

“Shut up,” he said, horrified to find his voice so raspy he can barely get the words out. “You can’t-you can’t possibly know what this is like-”

“Maybe not,” his mom interrupted, one of her hands going to his and squeezing it. “But I know that they wouldn’t have wanted you to stay out in the open like this. They would want you to be safe.”

Oh, they wanted him to be _safe_ alright-they had yelled through the door, pleading for him to be safe-to think, to be rational, to not run off and put himself in danger again-he had heard Kai _begging_ (he had been so desperate, so worried for Lloyd’s safety, when he should be worried for his own safety because Lloyd had gotten him _killed_ ) for him to stay, and he had-

And he had ignored them. If he hadn’t done that, maybe they could have defeated Garmadon and Harumi. Maybe none of this would have happened.

But his mom is right. If he failed to do the correct thing in the past, he can do it now.

Even if it’s too late.

Shakily, he got to his feet, letting the hand holding the mask fall down to his side. He stumbled forward, letting his mother lead the way with her hand clenching his. He was in no fit state to do anything, so he walked along behind her, trying not to drag his feet, trying not to slow her down. He’s already caused her enough grief.

“Lloyd?”

He raised his head to find Nya staring at him, her brown eyes locked onto his face. An expression of concern passed over her features, and she reached out a hand, brushing it over his cheek. “Lloyd, are you alright? Where are the others?”

Lloyd bit on his lip hard enough to draw blood, sniffling weakly. “I-I’m sorry.”

“Sorry?” Nya asked. “What for?”

He broke again, just barely able to stop himself from collapsing to the ground as he began to cry. 

“I’m so sorry,” he gasped out, pressing Kai’s hood into her hands. She stared at it, a look of slowly dawning horror spreading across her face. 

“What?” Nya gasps, voice sounding horrifically weak and fragile. “What are you talking about, Lloyd?”

He dropped to the ground in front of her, drawing in on himself as tears ran down his face again. 

“T-they’re dead. They’re dead and it’s all my fault.”

\---

_“You know, green machine, I thought I told you to go to bed five hours ago.”_

__

__

_Lloyd swore violently, whipping around to face his older brother, who stood there with a cheeky grin on his face. “Don’t do that to me.”_

_Kai laughed. “Or what? You’re gonna defeat me with the power of love? Or do you save that for your dad?”_

_Lloyd rolled his eyes. FSM’s sake, he’s going to be getting a lot of teasing about that, isn’t he. “Yes. Yes I will defeat you with the power of love.”_

__

__

_“I’m flattered to know I mean that much to you,” Kai teased, walking over to him and leaning down. “Seriously though, why are you still awake?”_

__

__

_Lloyd swallowed, backing up ever so slightly. “I don’t wanna talk about it.”_

__

__

_“Well too bad buddy, because now I’m worried about you, so I’m going to make you talk about it,” Kai said, eyebrows furrowed in concern. “Please tell me the Overlord didn’t land a hit on you that I don’t know about.”_

__

__

_Lloyd snorted. “No no no, nothing like that.” He paused. “Wait, how would you get me to talk? It’s not like you’re gonna torture me or anything.”_

__

__

_“Who knows,” Kai said airily. “Maybe I was planning on giving you candy if you tell me what’s up.”_

__

__

_Lloyd crossed his arms and stuck out his tongue. “Blackmail isn’t going to work on me.”_

__

__

_“Bribery, actually,” Kai said. “I’ll even throw in a hot chocolate too. It’s the deal of the century.”_

__

__

_Lloyd glared at him. Kai couldn’t break him with promises of candy. But the older boy was staring at him with such blatant concern in his eyes, that it slowly broke Lloyd down. “I had a nightmare.”_

__

__

_Kai stared at him. “What kind of nightmare makes you want to get up and wander around the house?”_

__

__

_Lloyd shrugged. He really didn’t want to tell Kai. But Kai looked even more worried at that, so he decided to fess up. “It was about today. If today had gone badly.”_

__

__

_He bit his lip, almost painfully (it felt like it had already been chewed through, for some reason). “The Overlord had won.”_

__

__

_He doesn’t bother clarifying beyond that. He doesn’t really need to. Kai made a soft noise all the same, and then said, “Oh, Lloyd…”_

__

__

_He sniffled weakly. “Y-you and all the guys had been taken over by the Dark Matter things, and then you were gone, and I-I couldn’t bring myself to hurt my dad-so he won-”_

__

__

_He was interrupted by Kai’s arms wrapping around him in a tight hug, the older boy pressing him close to his chest. Lloyd made an odd choking noise before he hugged Kai back, letting his older brother comfort him._

__

__

_“It’s a good thing that that didn’t happen now, did it?” Kai said. “That didn’t happen, and we’re all the better for it.”_

__

__

_Lloyd said nothing, just pressing his face further into Kai’s chest. “You managed to beat the Overlord, and everybody got out safe. Hell, you managed to get your dad out. That was something that none of us thought was possible, but you did it.”_

__

__

_Lloyd gave a wet sort of laugh. “Yeah. Happy endings all around.”_

__

__

_“And none of us were gone, alright?” Kai asked, voice soft. “None of us were gone. We’d never leave you. Nobody’s going to leave you from now on.”_

__

__

_Lloyd noted vaguely that they were now sitting on a couch somehow, Kai’s hand carding through his hair as he rested his head on Kai’s shoulder. His older brother was humming softly, lips curled upwards in a small smile. Despite how much Lloyd didn’t want to go back to sleep and have another nightmare, he was slowly nodding off to the sound of humming and the rhythm of Kai’s breathing. Kai had his hand grasped in his own, thumb rubbing circles on the back of it._

__

__

_Just before Lloyd was about to nod off, Kai said softly, “Lloyd?”_

__

__

_Lloyd blinked up at him. “We’re fine. Me and Zane and Cole and Jay. Your uncle, too.”_

__

__

_“I know, Kai,” he said, wondering why Nya wasn’t included in that group._

__

__

_“No you don’t,” his older brother said, and Lloyd noticed that Kai had an oddly intense expression on his face. “But we are. We’re safe. We’re fine, Lloyd. And it’s not your fault. Not any of it.”_

__

__

_Lloyd furrowed his eyebrows. “What are you talking about, Kai?”_

__

__

_Kai smiled weakly, but there were stress lines in his face that hadn’t been there before, and Lloyd realized that Kai looked older, for whatever reason, and-was that blood on the side of his face-why were the walls caving in-_

\---

Lloyd woke up with a sharp gasp, barely managing to note that the pillow under his face under his face was wet with tears before he felt sick, barely managing to make it to the bathroom before he was ill, retching into the toilet. When he was done, he collapsed to the floor, holding his face in shaky and sweaty palms.

_Not his fault_. Lloyd felt even more sick as he went over his dream again. Even his subconscious knew that Kai wouldn’t blame him for his own death.

But it was. It was his fault. 

Lloyd made a high, thin noise of grief. Kai was gone and he wasn’t coming back, so why was his subconscious insisting on torturing him like this?

He knew why. He hadn’t accepted their deaths yet. It had been less than a day since the Bounty was destroyed-and his brothers with it-and he was still reeling from it.

Nya had refused to believe it, too. She refused right up until she saw the destroyed wreck of the Bounty. Then she had collapsed, and they’d had to drag her inside a safe building. She had collapsed after that, staring numbly at her brother’s hood.

A strained whine escaped his throat as he thought back to the night of defeating the Overlord for the first time. It had been so much different from this night-he not only had his whole family, he had gotten his father back, as he really was, without the venom twisting itself inside of him.

He had a family back then.

And now he might as well be alone.


End file.
